Blackberry reminds us that the golden phase of Malayalam films when we had opportunities to laugh our guts out for two hours is well and truly behind us.

An actor is an actor and there is no need to brand him a villain or comedian. Baburaj is one of those actors who managed to escape such labelling. But those who watch his recent movies, including Blackberry can't be faulted for wondering if he is now slave to another kind of typecasting as a funny man.
The movie seems to depend heavily on his broad shoulders and the actor seems to be struggling to manage this singlehandedly in the absence of a strong script or sharp dialogues.

Not just Baburaj but also an array of villains * Spadikam George, Abu Salim and others * try to wear the ill-fitting garb of comedy without much success. This is supposed to be the specialty of the movie and the attempts at comedy reach absurd levels including the depiction of a defecation scene by one of the musclemen but they all fall flat, to put it mildly. In fact, even a veteran like Harisree Asokan fails in his attempts to tickle the funny bone. A young man who wants to get rich quick finds a Blackberry phone in the theatre left behind by a ‘don’ with strange habits he worships Mohanlal, drinks only milk and hides under the desk at the first knock.

Without the phone that has a special app, he feels powerless and tries to win it back.

Meanwhile, the young man,

played by Jomon, starts following the instructions on the phone and gets a bag full of cash first and a bag full of Mythili, who plays his love interest, after that. The girl happens to be the home minister’s daughter but she feels safer in a chawl than her own house.
If the central idea – that the don is unable to communicate with his clients without his favourite phone – is phony, the climax involving the pointless surrender of the don is laughable even though not funny in the least.

The advent of New Gen and other experiments are very well but what Blackberry reminds us is that the golden phase of Malayalam films when we had opportunities to laugh our guts out for two hours is well and truly behind us.

And that we no longer do have on our screens gifted comedians like Jagathy Sreekumar who can make it seem worthwhile to part with those 80 rupees or so for a show. In this case, rupee may be weak but the script is weaker.